


kapa moe

by Siria



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e15 Mai Ka Wa Kahiko, Gen, POV Character of Color, POV Female Character, Pillow & Blanket Forts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-10
Updated: 2012-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-30 21:23:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/336311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Your mom and me just have some stuff to talk about, okay?" Danny says. Kono watches as he stoops to press a kiss to Grace's forehead, tugs gently on one of her braids. "Boring grown-up stuff, so you get to stay here and have lots of fun with your Aunt Kono, okay?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	kapa moe

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Dogeared for betaing!

"Your mom and me just have some stuff to talk about, okay?" Danny says. Kono watches as he stoops to press a kiss to Grace's forehead, tugs gently on one of her braids. "Boring grown-up stuff, so you get to stay here and have lots of fun with your Aunt Kono, okay?"

 _Ten minutes_ he mouths at Kono over Grace's head, looking apologetic, but Kono doesn't hold it against him: doing the paperwork for a case this complicated is bound to be a pain in the ass, even ignoring the fact that it had involved Danny shooting his ex-wife's new husband. 

"Okay, Danno," Grace says. Once Danny walks into his office and closes the door behind him, she carefully selects a bright blue crayon from the box she brought with her and starts to fill in the sky on the first page of her colouring book. Grace has always been a quiet kid, her mother's reserve twinned with her father's earnestness, but today she just looks _sad_ and that makes Kono's heart hurt.

Kono sits beside her at the conference table, working through her own backlog of forms on her tablet computer and talking softly with her about surfing lessons. She hasn't asked Danny if Grace has started to talk about what happened yet—it's not her place—but after her time working undercover for Fryer, Kono knows what it's like to feel small and scared and wishing there was someone there just to hold you. She never wants Grace to have to feel that way. 

Grace has almost finished the first page in her colouring book when the main doors open and a beat cop walks in—Robbie Sanchez, Kono realises—with a stack of case files under one arm that he hands over to Chin with a smile and a casual greeting. He nods at Lori, laughs at something she says to him, and heads back out. It would be a totally everyday thing if not for the way Kono feels Grace flinch beside her, her small body shivering. 

Kono looks down at her and feels her heart turn over in her chest, because she never even _thought_ —she puts one hand on Grace's back and rubs soothing circles there. "Policemen in uniform are a little scary now, huh?"

Grace nods. "The man said Daddy was sick in the hospital and we were going to see him. He lied."

Kono keeps rubbing her back, catches Lori's eye through the window and jerks her chin to let her know Kono needs her in here. "It's okay to feel scared," Kono tells her as Lori comes into the conference room, "but we're all right here—me and Lori are right here, and your mom and your dad are right next door, okay?"

"Okay," Grace says in a small voice, and then turns and suddenly, violently, wraps her arms right around Kono's middle and squeezes. Kono feels her breath leave her with an _oof_ and she looks up at Lori helplessly. Wrangling little kids is fine with her—the Kelly-Kalakaua clan is a vast and sprawling one, and Kono'd learned how to change diapers not long after she was out of them herself—but she's had no proper training dealing with kids who've been through something terrible like this. Maybe profilers don't either, but they're a hell of a lot closer to what Grace needs than Kono is. 

Lori nods at her and then says, voice bright, "You know what's great when things are scary, Grace?"

"What?" Grace says, words muffled against Kono's side. 

"Blanket fort!" Lori says, and grins. "Excellent at keeping out scary things—guaranteed all the way up to fire-breathing dragon-proof."

By the time Danny emerges from his office some half an hour later, they've managed to construct what Kono thinks is a pretty badass blanket fort: every space blanket they could conjure up from emergency kits spread in a silvery sheet across several chairs. 

"You know," he says, poking his head in around the edge of one of the blankets, "you have a very determined gatekeeper out there, Monkey. Your Uncle Chin is very good at protecting forts."

"Auntie Kono says he has the biggest shotgun ever," Grace says, tone absolutely matter-of-fact, while she continues to work on the picture she's drawing. Kono tries not to snicker at what she says, but it's difficult given the look on Danny's face. 

"That's... very true, monkey," he says, glaring at Kono, which is totally unfair: it's so not her fault. "You want to let me come in and visit your fort before you and your mom go home?"

Grace shakes her head. "No boys allowed, Danno."

"This," Danny says dryly, "is a betrayal which would sting so much less if Steve wasn't sitting right over there with Lori." He gestures across the cramped space at Lori—who's commandeered a page of Grace's colouring book—and Steve, who's sitting with his knees crowded up around his ears, grinning. The crown of his head brushes up against the blanket fort's ceiling. _Hardcore Navy SEAL commander my ass_ , Kono thinks fondly.

Grace rolls her eyes and says, with absolute tween disdain, "Steve's not a _boy_ , Daddy, he's _Uncle Steve_."

"You heard the lady," Steve says, stretching his arm out to give Grace a fist bump. "I'm Uncle Steve."

"You're a menace, is what you are," Danny says, but he's grinning, and there's more colour in Grace's cheeks than there was an hour ago. Lori's smiling as she finishes up a neatly shaded rendition of a My Little Pony, and the sad lines have faded from Steve's face the way they always do when he's got his team close around him. Outside the fort, Rachel and Chin are keeping them safe from dragons—and really, Kono thinks, there are a lot worse ways to spend a rainy Thursday morning than this. 

(At least, that is, until Grace and Steve decide that it's time for a group hug, and bring the entire blanket fort down on top of them.)


End file.
